Russia expels 755 US diplomatic staffers
RUSSIA: Russian President Vladimir Putin announced yesterday that 755 American embassy and consulate employees would be ordered to leave his country in response to a package of sanctions awaiting President Donald Trump’s signature.
‘‘I decided it’s time for us to show we do not intend to leave US actions unanswered,’’ the Russian leader said in remarks aired in an interview on state television.
The expulsions, to take effect on September 1, would reduce the number of US diplomatic staff in Russia to 455, the same number that Russia has in the United States. In addition to its embassy in Moscow, the US maintains consulates in St Petersburg, Vladivostock and Yekaterinburg.
After the Senate passed the sanctions bill last week, the Kremlin indicated that some expulsions were in the offing, and the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that the number of US personnel should be reduced to 455. Still, Putin’s announcement was a huge escalation in terms of the usual diplomatic tit-for-tat. In contrast, only 35 Russians were expelled by President Barack Obama shortly before he left office, and most of those were singled out on suspicion of links to spying.
The Foreign Ministry had also said it had seized two American diplomatic properties, including cottages just outside Moscow’s city centre and a warehouse facility in Moscow.
Even during the days of the Cold War, retaliatory expulsions numbered in the dozens, such as when the Reagan administration ordered out 55 Soviet diplomatic employees in 1986.
Before Putin’s announcement, the White House had indicated that Trump will sign the sanctions bill, even though the president has for months expressed uncertainty over Russia’s involvement in what US intelligence agencies have described as a concerted campaign of Kremlin interference meant to throw the election to Trump.
The announced expulsions are a new turn in a Trump-putin relationship that for months had appeared to be both courtship ritual and testing ground. Trump held his first face-to-face meeting as president with Putin on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Germany, an encounter after which critics said Trump failed to forcefully confront the Russian leader over election meddling.
In a sense, the announcement brings Us-russia ties full circle from the Obama-ordered expulsions back in December. Trump praised Putin at the time for not responding in kind to those. It eventually emerged that Trump’s short-lived national security adviser, Michael Flynn, had discussed the sanctions issue with the Russian ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak. Flynn was fired after just 24 days on the job.
Putin’s comments came hours after a senior Russian envoy had hinted at additional retaliation for an ‘‘unacceptable’’ US sanctions measure overwhelmingly approved last week by the Senate, following a similarly lopsided endorsement by the House of Representatives.
In an interview aired in the US shortly before Putin spoke on Russian TV, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov sharply denounced the sanctions bill, calling it ‘‘unacceptable’’ and ‘‘the last straw.’’
‘‘This retaliation is long, long overdue,’’ Ryabkov said on ABC’S This Week. ’’If the US side decides to move further towards further deterioration, we will answer, we will respond in kind. ‘‘We will mirror this. We will retaliate.’’
Trump, who was at his Virginia golf course as the diplomatic confrontation erupted, has repeatedly called multiple investigations as to whether Russia colluded with his campaign a ‘‘witch hunt.’’ Ryabkov used similar language to describe the inquiries.
‘‘The very fact that someone saw some Russian or Russians somewhere is now close to a criminal act ... I think it’s ridiculous,’’ he said in the ABC interview. ‘‘It’s degrading for such a great country as the United States.’’
Although he repeated a blanket denial of Kremlin involvement in the election, Ryabkov did not directly address a question as to whether Moscow had given the Trump camp illegally obtained information that was detrimental to Hillary Clinton. ‘‘All the information we provide to anyone can be easily found in open sources,’’ he said. - LA Times